December Homework Answer

I posted a question as homework for the December meeting. The question had to do with the media attribute that is part of CSS. You can look at the November 21 entry on this site for the full question, but it was basically this: If you look at this page of minutes from a township meeting and print it out (or just look at Print/Preview in your browser), you get a print version of the minutes without graphics or formatting. I asked whether anyone saw a problem with this approach--I load a separate style sheet for printing, thus avoiding having to make a separate printer version of the page.

Here is what I see as the problem: I have hijacked the browser. When people press the print button, they expect to have the page they see come out of the printer. Instead, they see something else that might not be what they want.

The better solution, I think, is to have the print version load when the reader wants it to load. I can still do one page and employ CSS to render a print version, but the reader should have the option of selecting it. The solution would be by scripting or some other technique. I hope to discuss solutions when we get to the media attribute. In the mean time, you might want to check out this article.